TO: All Naval Officers
SUBJECT: Fleet Report: February 2005
-------------
Introduction
-------------
So here is the next installment of the Fleet Reports. It's been a little over a
month since the last one, and about once per month is the frequency I'm aiming
for. As said previously, I appreciate it if your reports come through at least
as often.
This report is presented via e-mail and posted on the Imperial Navy section of
the message boards. I've considered doing a .pdf version (and it wouldn't be
hard), but it makes just as much sense to e-mail it in plain text as to attach a
PDF document.
This report has, however, taken a very long time to write. So long I might
consider writing a story like "Vice Admiral Fel and the Never-Ending Fleet
Report", except for the fact that writing the story would take even longer than
writing the report. By that time, it would be long past time for the next Fleet
Report. So that story may have to be written by somebody else.
In any event, I've done something that Daemon used to do: BCC the report to
every officer in the fleet... so no forwarding by commanding officers is needed.
(Don't expect this on every e-mail from my office, however, so be ready to
forward as needed in the future)
-------------
News
-------------
1) Outer Sectors Update
On the orders of FA Polanski, I declassified a briefing for all officers, which
is available both on the message boards ( http://www.empirereborn.net/holonet/ )
and should have reached your inbox by mail as well.
More details will be coming soon, but all Naval officers should be prepared for
anything.
Also, some of you may have heard rumors of Mr. Daemon being in contact... all
known information is currently classified...
--
2) Free Worlds Go...!
Not long after my last fleet report, Vortagh returned to us from the reserves to
take command of Zeta Squadron, the Navy's first Free Worlds unit. Since then,
Lieutenant Commander Vortagh has been working nonstop on everything he can get
his hands on.
Several notable members of the Empire moved into Zeta squadron to be among the
pioneers of FW. Former Line Captain Steel, former Lieutenant Commander Splatter
(who also served in the Army), and former Lieutenant Zwibble all came back to
join Zeta.
He's been releasing Zeta Squadron reports that are excellent... they should be
an example of what a report looks like.
Note that they need not be *that*long, but the length is very nice.
With regards to Free Worlds, thanks to the efforts of Commander Vortagh, we now
have a faction on the "24/7 USA Free Worlds server" run by a Mr. Burnout. This
means anyone with Freelancer and Free Worlds should get in contact with Vortagh
to learn about how to get online with the rest of the group.
Please be aware that you cannot use our faction tag or buy any non-[CIV] ship
without first speaking to Vortagh! Speaking to Vortagh is extremely important:
We do not run the server ourselves, and so disciplinary action is handed out by
other groups. We don't want you to get banned, so make sure you know exactly
what to do before you jump right in.
Sub-Lieutenant Phantom, the previous person to be involved with FW has moved to
the reserves, so all FW-related items are to go through Vortagh. If you are
interested in transferring to FW, please send me an e-mail and I'll put you in
right away.
--
3) New Tactical Co-Ordinator!
The other duty Mr. Vortagh has assumed is the role of Tactical Co-ordinator for
the Empire. All missions should be sent to him via e-mail (and not any other
method).
If you wish to submit a mission or battle, please e-mail it to
tactical@empirereborn.net, and do remember to zip it and include a descriptive
e-mail subject. Mr. Vortagh will get to them all in good time, and once they are
tested, they will be uploaded to the combat chamber. Most of the sims in the CC
are quite old, and I'm sure we're all looking forward to some new ones.
If you're interested in being a test pilot for the TC's office (and I did it a
few years back, when I was a lieutenant; it's great fun), you may wish to
contact Commander Vortagh. It is a TDA, so it will be something you do on the
side alongside your regular duties. This offer is not restricted to Naval
officers or to active ones (Officers in the reserves are welcome to participate
as well.
).For more details, see the TC report (it is contained in the most recent Zeta
report).
--
4) Database Problem...
As you may have read on the Message Boards, the EmpireReborn.net database had a
little problem this past week. A cadet placement script "malfunctioned" and
caused an assignment of every officer to the position of "Zeta 1-3" in the Navy.
Thus far the senior staff have been working to restore the data to its previous
state. If there is something out of order, please let me or FA Polanski know.
Mr. La Forge, the architect of the script in question, assures me that
everything works now, to which I can only say "That's what you said last time."
Joking aside, however, the script was tested again quietly and worked without
major incident. While it wasn't perfect, at least this time only the officer who
was supposed to be assigned was affected.
To remedy the situation, Mr. Vortagh has offered a number of databases for La
Forge to test in, and in keeping with La Forge's character, we have dubbed it
the "Database Sandbox". In the future the scripts will receive thorough testing
in the sandbox, and Commander La Forge is not permitted to leave the sandbox
until a full battery of tests is completed on his work.
See more on this topic later in the report.
If you'd like to add something to or change your profile, first see if you can
do so in the Administration section of the EmpireReborn.net website. If not,
please e-mail me and I will be happy to add or change the data.
--
5) Gimel Squadron Leader Change...!
Gimel Squadron of the ISD Nemesis has had a change in squad leader... Mr. MAR
has moved to the reserves, and the Nemesis family is proud to welcome back
Lieutenant Christine Daltin.
Ms. Daltin returns to us from a period in the reserves, before which she had a
short career in the ISB. I am quite sure that everyone aboard the Nemesis is
very glad to have her back.
--
6) Eta Squadron Closes
The Nemesis also has some unfortunate news to report... Eta Squadron is closing.
Since losing its squad leader some time ago the squadron has not done well, and
all the remaining members have either asked to be moved to the reserves or have
been declared AWOL.
In general it is more symptomatic of a decreasing number of X-Wing vs. TIE
Fighter (XvT) officers in the Navy... while XWA, TIE, and FW all continue to
gain in numbers steadily, XvT has been in decline. This, of course, makes XvT
recruiting highly encouraged.
--
7) Imperial Archives Cleaned
This item was forwarded down in an earlier memo from my desk, but it's so
important that it's worth repeating:
Recently, a massive cleaning of the Imperial Archives have taken place. All
material not relevant to the operations of the GE:ER or taken from copyrighted
sources has been removed. The new guidelines for submission:
- It must be relevant to the GE directly. Specifications of the ships we fly,
for example, do not count. However, your own fiction or biography is welcome.
The archives are not meant to be a place to put every fact about the SW universe
known... only about our Empire.
- It *MUST NOT* be copied from somewhere else! Copyright law is something the
organization respects, and we cannot have any copyrighted material in the
archives. The laws are clear about copyrights, and the Empire is not going to
break them.
As long as you follow these guidelines, there should be no problems!
--
GE Domination II Results (Soon)!For those of us who have been in Imperial service since the first half of 2002
might remember a competition run by Vortagh called "GE Domination II". It was
the successor to Pavz's "GE Domination", and was arguably the most successful
all-GE competition ever.
Unfortunately Mr. Vortagh left the GE before he could complete tallying the
scores or giving official results. Since his return he has been working to get
these scores and hand out the appropriate medals. The massive nature of the
competition means that it will take a while longer.
Even though full results are not yet ready, I have authorized the Imperial
Victory Medal with Platinum Leaves, the rarest and most prestigious form of the
IVM, for the overall winner. This will be the very first awarding of the IVM-PL,
but given the size of the competition it is quite clear that whomever the the
winner deserves, he or she deserves it...
--
9) GE Channel Registered / GE Meeting
Recently General Jansen has tried to re-register #galactic_empire on Undernet as
our official IRC channel. It took more than one try, but we finally succeeded,
and so the Channel Services Bot ("X") is now back with us. Please do drop by our
channel if you haven't already; we'd love to see you there.
In addition, we had an official GE Meeting, the log of which is available on the
GE:ER site.
--
10) Picpage Returns!
Another project of the past has returned: The GE picpage! Located at
http://www.zwibble.com , the picpage is a place where many GE members (myself
included!) have submitted their pictures.
Submitting your picture for the picpage is, of course, optional, but it's
encouraged by Zwibble, the maintainer of the page. If you should choose to send
a picture or two (or more
), submit them to her at zwibble@gmx.net and be sure to include how you would like your name displayed on the site.
--
11) General Jansen compiling GE:ER History!
General Jansen has passed around a GE:ER timeline that he has been working on.
Things included in the timeline are such events as divisions opening, and ship /
squadron openings and closings. If you have some of that data, please be sure to
send it to him at CoA@empirereborn.net -- he would greatly appreciate it.
--
-------------
FPRs
-------------
EF Quorl Dalon - ERS-30, ERS-42
PFC Seppen (Army)- ERS-4
Good to see that there's flying again! The admin module for processing FPRs
isn't working (but we're better off this way than if it works as well as the
cadet placement module
), but I am more than happy to process the FPRs byhand. In the future the TC will do so, but not until administration has that
function.
As a side note to the non-naval officers reading this, I will be processing all
Naval simulations (any in TIE, XvT/BoP, XWA), even for non-naval officers. So
please feel free to jump in the simulator and I will process them through.
I notice not many of you are flying. Fly enough and you get a nice, shiny Medal
of Combat. And you get to drive Fel crazy, if you all turn in your FPRs in a
short period of time. How many opportunities are you going to get like that?
-------------
Multiplayer
-------------
Lieutenant Commander Vortagh
Commander La Forge
Colonel Jagged Fel
Ensign First Class Zwibble
The participations that I'm speaking of are called ICTE - Inter-Club Training
Events. Usually they take place on weekends, and MERLANCE from IRC comes over to
our channels to see if there are any takers. It's good to go out and fly like
that. Just participation will get you the service medal variant of the Imperial
Star, whether you win or lose. I'd like to see lots of participation; it's good
for the GE:ER's image.
The Ladders are also open... participating is a great way to practice and earn
yourself some kills that count to wards the Expert Combatants ratings. Note that
one "kill" in that system is equivalent to winning one ladders game.
Participating in the ladders is very highly encouraged, and may even lead you to
win an Imperial Victory Cross! The more activity there is on a ladder, the
higher the award: great amounts of activity will lead to more awards. Best of
all you might get the satisfaction of firing weapons at your superior officers...
If firewall, router, or other issues are keeping you from being able to play in
the ladders, don't despair... with some patience and work, there's usually a way
to play, at least (but not necessarily host). Check out the techhelp board on
the ImperialSquadrons.net message boards (
http://www.imperialsquadrons.net/phpbb/ ), the technical archives, and the
LucasArts website to get the information and instructions you need.
-------------
Reports
-------------
ISD Chimaera: February 15
Alpha - January 28
Iota - February 11
Zeta - February 15
ISD Nemesis
Epsilon - Received
Eta - Squadron Closed
Gimel - None required (Daltin just took command)
I'm glad to see that people didn't think I was kidding when I said reports would
be starting up again.
There really isn't much to comment on here, and that's a good thing. If I didn't
get reports, there'd be some not so happy comments here.
Overall I'm happy with the squadron statuses; Most have more than half the
squadron filled. As we get more recruits we will be opening more squads, of
course, and the re-opening of squadrons is always a happy occasion.
-------------
New Cadets
-------------
Please welcome the newest members of the Navy:
EN Palermo - Gimel (ISD Nemesis)
EN Moonbreaker - Gimel (ISD Nemesis)
EN Astin - Alpha (ISD Chimaera)
EN Astaroth - Zeta (ISD Chimaera)
EN Kasra - Zeta (ISD Chimaera)
-------------
Medals
-------------
Congratulations to all the officers listed below... their efforts above and
beyond the call of duty have been rewarded.
(Note that "Imperial Star - 1 Pin" is given on the first award and "Imperial
Star Pin" on subsequent ones. When an officer achieves an upgrade, such as
"Imperial Star - Bronze Bar", that is denoted in the same way as the original
award.)
LC Vortagh
Medal of Merit - Registration of #galactic_empire
Silver Seal - Backdated award from GA Daemon
Imperial Star - 1 Pin - Backdated award from Operation: Purge Orus
Imperial Star Pin - ICTE Participation
2LT Drazhar
Medal of Merit - Handling Iota during Muscat's leave
CM Laithlis
Medal of Merit - Registration of #galactic_empire
RES Syrtaras
Medal of Merit - Registration of #galactic_empire
EF Zwibble
Medal of Merit - Registration of #galactic_empire
Imperial Star - 1 Pin - ICTE Participation
VA Fel
Medal of Merit - Registration of #galactic_empire
CM La Forge
Medal of Merit - Registration of #galactic_empire
IVC-SW - 1st Place, XWA Ladders Ending Dec. 31
Imperial Star Pin - ICTE Participation
LT Stark
IVC-BW - 2nd Place, XWA Ladders Ending Dec. 31
Various people also got the Medal of Expansion re-awarded since we were missing
the data in some cases. If you've recruited someone and are missing credit,
please let me know, and I will add it in.
Also, if the person you recruited is currently not in the system, that means the
person in question is labelled "inactive" (not a reserve, but no longer in
service of the Empire), and the data for these people is not currently in the
database. Note that the data was present until Mr. La Forge's script "oops" and
it should be restored very shortly. Feel free to send along the request for
credit, however, and I will add it when possible.
If you are owed another medal of some sort, please contact me about it and we'll
sort it all out.
-------------
Competitions
-------------
1) Ewok Hunt
General Jansen has ordered an Ewok Hunt... and we're to fill in the details!
This is a story competition where you get to tell the story of the Empire's
great Ewok Hunt... For more details see
viewtopic.php?t=555
This competition appears to have been extended, so there's still time.
--
2) Find LC Muscat!
Mr. Muscat has put together three simulations, one for TIE, one for XvT, and one
for XWA. He is somewhere in one of them, and it's our job to find him, somewhere
in one of those three scenarios.
It appears Mr. Vortagh has won this round, so another medal may be coming
through for him very shortly.
Take note, everyone, that he's going to run out of room in his office if he
keeps getting all of these medals, so the least the rest of you can do is try to
win them for yourselves.
--
3) Recruitment Competition
Exactly what it sounds like: Even more incentive to recruit! Full details are
available at viewtopic.php?t=574
-----------------
Sith of the Month
-----------------
Every month there's that one person crafty, clever, or just plain cool enough to
earn the award of Sith of the Month.
This month it is... *drumroll* Lieutenant Commander George Hellaeron Vortagh II!
This man is just unstoppable. Every second of the day I see him working on GE
stuff, only taking breaks it seems to eat and sleep. Now that's dedication.
Were I to describe exactly all the things he does, this report would be even
longer than it already is. Suffice it to say he goes above and beyond what the
Empire could expect of anyone...
-------------------
Gungan of the Month
-------------------
Since the Sith of the Month is so amazing, the universe must compensate to bring
everything back into balance.
This month, and I suspect many of you saw this coming, it is: Commander Michael
La Forge.
In the words of Syrtaras "Do. Not. Test. Things. In. A. Productive. Environment.
Ever."
To summarize, Commander La Forge wrote a script to make placement of cadets
faster and more efficient. Upon using the system, it set EVERY SINGLE OFFICER to
the target rank and position of the cadet that was supposed to be placed. Every
last officer, including inactives and reserves, became Ensign with the position
of "Zeta 1-3'. While Commander Vortagh was happy to see such an increase in Zeta
squadron's numbers, he was most assuredly *not* amused when relocation expenses
outstripped Zeta's budget by a factor of 20.
Suffice it to say I was not amused either, nor was Fleet Admiral Polanski. This
ranks far above the Christmas debacle of several years back.
I've ordered a small change to the Commander's uniform: There is now a series of
red and white concentric circles on the back, also known on some worlds as a
"target" or "bullseye". Proper procedure when you pass him in the hallway is to
use a piece of fruit (rotten provides best results) and practice your target
throwing, because you never know when you might need your throwing arm in good
shape.
-------------
Orders
-------------
1) Be in contact
There are loads of ways to be in contact, and e-mail is just one of them. Many
officers are available on AOL Instant Messenger, and some even on MSN Messenger,
both of which are free downloads. Some people are also on IRC (Internet Relay
Chat) all the time, so please do come by! #galactic_empire on the Undernet
network. We're friendly (as long as you're well behaved) and would be very glad
to have you join us.
2) Recruit
The Empire is always in need of new officers, so if you know somebody who'd like
to join, or if you just want to go out on IRC or the MSN Gaming zone and find
people, that's very much encouraged...
3) Fly
I'd really like to see lots of people flying, whether on the ladders, single
player, or on the Free Worlds server. It doesn't have to take much time, and
it's a lot of fun, which leads me to my next point:
4) Have Fun!
That's the most important part of the whole thing.
What you'll remember ten years down the road is not the name of that dashingly handsome vice admiral who
wrote the never-ending reports, but how much fun you had while you were a part
of the organization. The other side of that is:
5) Make Friends
I've made lots of friends since I joined the Empire, and I've learned a lot from
each and every one of them. Friends are the other part of what makes the GE fun,
and so that's why I encourage you very strongly to make friends. You never know
who you might meet.
-------------
Closing
-------------
This report might have been long, but it's pretty much everything you need to
know, so if you've skipped right to the end, I urge you to go back and read
through it. Taking breaks is permitted.
Do you have a question? Comment? Correction? E-mail me (just hit reply
) and I will issue a correction or give you whatever answer you are looking for, if I
can.
As always, please don't hesitate to contact me for any reason at
fel@empirereborn.net -- I will gladly help out in any way that I can.
--
-Vice Admiral Tiberius "Kamikaze" Fel
VA Fel / SecGroup 2 SG-FO / ISD Nemesis / Imperial Navy
[LoP] [GS] [SS] [BS] [IS-1P] [MoM]x6 [IVC-BW] [LSM-5S] [MoC-3S] [MoX]
Imperial Navy Fleet Commander
VA Tiberius Fel's Advice For Fleet Commanders #1
--
Never, ever, *ever* take the coder's word for it when he says 'It will work
perfectly, I promise!'.
--
